First Class cricket is the backbone of the cricket structure in all Test playing nations. The Test and ODI sides are chosen from the first class teams. I studied the strike rates of first class batsmen in 5 Test playing countries – India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England. The motivation for doing this was to find out if this revealed anything about the nature of first class (and by inference Test batting). The results were quite interesting. The graph below shows the progression of batting strike rates in first class competitions in these five countries. The list of batsmen was sorted in descending order of the number of runs scored by the batsmen in the reason.
The graph makes for interesting reading. It clearly shows that batting strike rates in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group (for which the averages were considered) were significantly lower than those in the other competitions. If we considered 70% of the total runs scored in the first class competitions by the fewest batsmen (which would be the top run scorers in each competition contributing to 70% of the runs), we find that the characteristics of the first class teams are in sync with the characteristics of the respective Test teams. Run scoring in India is distinctly slower than it is in any of the other countries. In New Zealand, there are more batsmen contributing sizable runs and the batting orders generally seem to be deeper than in the other countries.
The scoring rate in India is interesting, because India is reputed to have the weakest bowling line up and the easiest batting conditions in the world. Fast bowlers graveyard etc. etc. Further, if we look at the bowling averages, then of the 15 bowlers who have more than 25 wickets in the 2006-07 Ranji trophy competition, we see 1 off spinner, 3 left arm spinners and 11 fast medium/ medium pace bowlers. Spinners have not had great success in the Indian domestic season, which suggests that there isn’t a great deal of spin bowling talent in first class cricket in India today. Given that Indian grounds are invariably quicker scoring grounds than grounds in Australia and South Africa especially, a strong case can be made that the batting in the country is not yet used to shift in bowling focus from spin to pace. The nature of wickets for first class cricket – the number of low scoring games is quite high. The average total for a completed innings in the Ranji trophy was 278, as against 337 in the Australian competition and 317 in the County Championship.
Another interesting statistic is that the 13 first class sides in the Ranji Trophy (Elite Competition) used 260 players between them, thats and average of 20 per side over a 7 match season. 9 English counties (Division 1) on the other hand, used 180 cricketers over a 16 match season. The 6 Australian sides used 99 players over the 6 matches played so far. In terms of results, 25 out of 49 matches yielded outright results in the Ranji Trophy, 39 out of 84 yielded outright results in the county championship, while 10 out of 15 Pura Cup matches this season have yielded outright results.
All this suggests that the quality of wickets on offer for First class cricket in India, need improvement. Wickets which will allow faster scoring, and also leave the bowler with a chance. The fact that 20 players per first class team have been used in the elite group, in spite of the fact that interference in first class sides due to Test players has been minimal, also suggests a dearth of talent.
This does not augur well for the next generation Indian side. What implications does this have for the policy of conducting A tours, age group tours, basing selection to the national team increasing based on academy performance and age-group performance? Of the 11 batsmen in the elite Ranji competition who made more than 500 runs this season, only 2 – Cheteshwar Pujara and Robin Utthappa are realistically in line for national team selection, and that too in the One Day game. Where are the replacements for Tendulkar and Laxman?
The BCCI Technical Committee headed by Sunil Gavaskar is meeting to discuss rules for the 20-20 competition. They might also want to discuss first class cricket. First class cricket in India can become a contest in itself, with better grounds and better publicity. But for that, it must not be attritional, slow scoring cricket.
Kartikeyadate's Weblog 
January 16, 2007 at 10:44 pm
This is an interesting analysis. I have some thoughts about the scoring rates in Ranji trophy. I believe that the low scoring rates that you see could be due to the rules in play. As far as I know, the team with the first innings lead gets some of the points for the game. In the knockout stages, the first innings lead decides the winner. I think this leads to a “slow and safe” mentality. Basically, the focus is on playing a huge first innings, and not really on trying to force a result. Do you think this could be a factor ?
Do the first class competitions in Australia and South Africa also have similar rules ?
January 17, 2007 at 12:03 am
The Australian point scoring system is the same as the Indian system. I don’t think it is due to the safe scoring anymore, because the rules have been changed and the round robin format has been extended.
Consider also the fact that innings totals are actually lower in Ranji Trophy than they are in Pura Cup or even County Cricket.